A key Republican lawmaker says Fox News host Tucker Carlson does not have unrestricted use of January 6 U.S. Capitol surveillance footage.

“It’s basically controlled access to be able to view tapes. Can’t record, can’t take anything with you,” Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA), who chairs the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight, said in response to a question from The Hill.

Carlson’s team “may request any particular clips they may need, then we’ll make sure there’s nothing sensitive, nothing classified, including escape routes,” Loudermilk told CBS News. “We don’t want al Qaeda to know certain things.”

Axios first reported last week that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) shared with Carlson 41,000 hours of surveillance footage from January 6, 2021, the day a crowd of people entered the U.S. Capitol, disrupting lawmakers who were meeting to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. A Fox News spokesperson told The Daily Wire that the report from Axios was accurate.

On his show, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Carlson said his team had been granted what they believe to be “unfettered” access to the tapes. Carlson said he planned to start sharing what his team found this week.

Tucker Carlson Announces That His Show Has Been Granted Access To 44k Hours Of Footage From January 6th

"We believe that access is unfettered. We believe we have secured the right to see whatever we want to see."

"We're going to spend the rest of this week taking a look at it,… https://t.co/sK7691S0n8 pic.twitter.com/GnPvtbENg5

— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) February 21, 2023

A variety of media organizations followed suit by asking congressional leadership to give them access to the same footage.

Loudermilk reportedly offered assurance that other news outlets and the public would also get access, eventually. “Hopefully sooner rather than later, but I think we’re talking about weeks to months,” he said.

The congressman also told POLITICO that House Republicans intend to give January 6 defendants access to relevant documents and video “on a case-by-case basis, as requested by attorneys representing defendants.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

McCarthy said last month he was looking to release the tapes because of the “politicization” he believed had been fostered by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and the January 6 Committee, which focused heavily on former President Donald Trump in its investigation and final report.

In brief remarks to The New York Times last week, McCarthy boiled down his decision to the fulfillment of a promise. “I was asked in the press about these tapes, and I said they do belong to the American public,” he said. “I think sunshine lets everybody make their own judgment.” In addition, McCarthy insisted to the newspaper that his team staff members were taking the matter “very seriously.”

Over the past week, Democrats issued myriad alarming statements about risks to Capitol security and the potential to fuel Russian propaganda.

In a letter to House Democrats, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said his team was “working to confirm the precise nature of the video transfer,” which he called a “reported breach,” and he stated there was “no indication” that McCarthy and Carlson followed the same protocols adopted by the January 6 Committee in handling the footage.

A Democratic member of the January 6 Committee, Maryland’s Rep. Jamie Raskin, questioned whether the release of the tapes could become a “roadmap” for a 2024 “insurrection.”

Some Republicans have cheered the move, including Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who had opposed McCarthy’s bid for speaker earlier this year. “Thank you [McCarthy] for following through on this!” she tweeted. “The public deserves to see everything that was hidden.”

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) insisted that any disclosure of the January 6 tapes is “obviously going to be scrutinized to make sure that you’re not exposing sensitive information.”

Supermarket chains in the United Kingdom have started to ration fruits and vegetables as a nationwide shortage of fresh produce continues.

Tesco, the nation’s leading grocery retailer, has introduced limits on tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers to three items per customer, according to a report from The Mirror. Budget supermarket Aldi implemented an identical move, while the purchase limits at Asda also apply to lettuce, bagged salad, broccoli, cauliflower, and raspberries. Customers at Morrisons can purchase two items per individual when shopping for tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, and peppers.

Lidl was the latest supermarket chain to introduce limits on fruit and vegetable purchases as cold weather in Spain and Morocco impacts the availability of fresh produce in the United Kingdom, according to a report from BBC News. “Whilst we still have good availability across the majority of our stores, due to a recent increase in demand we have taken the decision to temporarily limit the purchase of peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers to three items per person,” a spokesperson for Lidl told the outlet. “This will help to ensure that all of our customers have access to the products they need.”

Beyond growers in the warmer climates of Spain and Morocco, rising prices for energy, fertilizer, and animal feed have introduced cost pressures for British farmers, leading one-third to change their cropping plans, according to a report released last summer by the National Farmers Union. Some producers, for instance, are pivoting from growing milling wheat for bread to growing feed wheat for livestock because of the lower fertilizer required for the latter.

“Costs are rising rapidly on farms across the country and across all sectors,” National Farmers Union President Minette Batters said in a statement. “It’s already having an impact on the food we’re producing as a nation as well as leading to a crisis of confidence among farmers.”

British Farming Minister Mark Spencer met earlier this week with grocery executives to discuss the shortages. A statement from the British Retail Consortium, a trade association that represents supermarkets, said that consumers can expect relief in the coming weeks and that suppliers “acknowledged the importance of food security, but noted that this requires a wider strategy involving government, farmers, food manufacturers, retailers and hospitality,” according to a report from Reuters.

The shortages in the United Kingdom occur as the global economy continues to grapple with supply chain bottlenecks and the Russian war in Ukraine, which have increased worldwide food and energy prices. Customers in the United States have not been immune from the phenomena: expenses for food at home increased 11.3% between January 2022 and January 2023, while costs for food away from home rose 8.2% over the same period. A recent bout of the avian flu has likewise decreased the size of American poultry flocks, raising costs for chicken and turkey while causing a severe increase in prices for eggs.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP

Despite the persistent increases in food expenses, President Joe Biden responded last week to an inflation data release by contending that “we have made progress on inflation, but we have more work to do.” He touted efforts from his administration to reduce prices and said Republicans undermine the economy by opposing his spending agenda.